Real-Time Trade Matching

Real-Time Trade Matching (RTTM®) enables dealers, brokers and other market participants to automate the processing of fixed income securities trades throughout the trading day.

RTTM provides a common electronic platform for collecting and matching trade data, enabling the parties to trade, monitor and manage the status of their trade activity in real-time. Through RTTM, the parties can track a transaction from trade entry through clearance and regulatory reporting.

The result is an immediate confirmation for trade execution that is legal and binding. The confirmation also serves to initiate Fixed Income Clearing Corporation’s (FICC) guarantee of trade completion. RTTM is available as a mainframe communications service or through an web-based service called RTTM Web.

RTTM provides a common trade capture and matching platform, a single communications pipeline, and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) interactive message format for the entire U.S. fixed-income marketplace. This includes not only U.S. Government and mortgage-backed securities settled through FICC, but also corporate and municipal bonds and Unit Investment Trusts (UITs), which are settled by National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC). Both FICC and NSCC are subsidiaries of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

Who Can Use this Service

Government Securities Division (GSD) members, MBSD members and NSCC members are eligible to use RTTM. In addition, through GSD’s Executing Firm feature, which permits introducing members to submit trades on behalf of non-GSD members such as institutions and correspondent firms, it is possible for non-GSD members to also benefit from RTTM.

Benefits

RTTM addresses the industry need for automation, interactive communications and risk mitigation in the traditionally fragmented over-the-counter debt markets. Covering the breadth of fixed income instruments that customers trade, RTTM brings members closer to achieving the many benefits of straight-through processing, including:

Further risk reduction through centralized trade date matching and the establishment of legally binding confirmations in real-time, providing a guaranty of trade completion at time of match (GSD and MBSD);

Reliable communications and standardized interactive messaging;

A cost-efficient consolidated platform that supports all highly-traded fixed income products;

A web-based front end allowing members to enter trade-related activity and obtain real-time status information, along with user-friendly search, query, and reporting tools;

Specified pool trade matching and reporting for MBSD;

Exception-based screens, allowing members to focus only on discrepancies rather than on the entire post-trade processing flow;

Standardized procedures across fixed income products, minimizing the number of specialized systems and personnel needed to support your operations;

Ability to comply with business and regulatory demand for more timely and transparent trade reporting;

Full alignment with business continuity plans by providing for the safe storage of trade data; and

How the Service Works

Customers can submit their trades upon execution in real-time for matching, exchange trade status messages, submit pool data for matching, access and transmit reports, and cancel or modify trades in RTTM using one of two methods: via RTTM Web, the web-based user interface, or via mainframe-based interactive messages.

RTTM Web is a web-based interface that serves as a centralized point of entry, providing transaction management and screen-based error resolution across fixed income instrument types. The application is a secure, browser-based trade entry/management tool that incorporates robust search capabilities, statistical reporting, and exception processing.

Through RTTM Web, customers can enter trade-related activity and, regardless of input method, obtain the real-time status of all transactions received and/or updated by the RTTM system. RTTM Web’s user-friendly search, query, and reporting tools help members proactively identify and resolve processing exceptions that, left undetected, could lead to costly trade discrepancies.

Regardless of how trades are submitted, FICC will generate output to RTTM users when trades are compared (whether comparison occurs as a result of matching, or trades are recorded as compared upon receipt). Comparisons generated by FICC evidence a valid, binding and enforceable contract between the trading member counterparties, and also represent the point at which MBSD’s trade guarantee goes into effect.

RTTM will send matched NSCC-eligible obligations that qualify for netting to NSCC’s Continuous Net Settlement (CNS) system, Balance Order system or the Trade-for-Trade Accounting system. The vast majority of trades settle in CNS, which nets transactions for each participant and facilitates the book-entry movement of depository eligible securities in a centralized, controlled and automated environment.